The control device of this invention is suitable for use with many types of apparatus having numerous functions that must be individually controlled by manual inputs. However, the nature and purpose of the device are perhaps most readily understood if it is described as installed in a fighter aircraft, and therefore it is so described herein by way of a particularly appropriate example.
Present day aircraft, and especially fighter aircraft, are equipped to perform a large number of controllable functions, but at the same time they encounter increasingly stringent requirements for compactness and low weight. It has therefore become increasingly difficult to find room in the pilot's compartment for all of the levers, pushbuttons and other manually actuatable control instrumentalities that are needed for control of these many functions, especially in view of the fact that most such instrumentalities must be readily accessible. It is also essential for safety and efficiency that most such instrumentalities be so arranged that the pilot can positively identify each by touch or feel, so that he can actuate a desired instrumentality without having to look at it.
Normal operation of a fighter aircraft, particularly when it is being maneuvered, requires the pilot to keep his left hand on a throttle control (usually a lever or knob) for regulating engine power output and his right hand on a stick that controls movements of the aircraft about its pitch and roll axes. Moving either hand off of the control instrumentality that it normally engages not only risks some degree of momentary lack of control over the aircraft but, more important, requires more or less concentrated attention to direct the hand to the instrumentality to be actuated, and this is especially the case when the unsupported hand is subjected to the high acceleration forces encountered in a sharp turn or similar abrupt maneuver.
It is evident that, so far as possible, control instrumentalities that have to be actuated in flight, and especially those that may have to be actuated in maneuvering flight, should be so located that the pilot can actuate them with his left hand while keeping it on the throttle control or with his right hand while it remains on the stick. Heretofore, however, it has not been known how to so arrange a substantially large number of function control instrumentalities as to achieve this objective and also enable the pilot to select and actuate a desired one of the several instrumentalities merely by touch or feel.